Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

86 Championship tricks and a victory over the Boks With confidence high, the spinners in fine form, and Wooller – like a British bulldog, snarling instructions plus a few insults from his position at short- leg – it is not surprising that, as in 1937 when they had risen up the table under the more genteel leadership of Maurice Turnbull, Wooller’s men won four out of four Championship matches at St. Helen’s during that daffodil golden summer of 1948. Three of those games were dominated by the left-arm spin of Stan Trick, one of the stars of League cricket in West Wales during the years either side of the Second World War. Born in Briton Ferry in October 1916, Stan had shone at sport whilst at Cwrt Sart School and won a string of Welsh schools football caps. But, it was in cricket that he later hit the headlines, playing initially with honour for Briton Ferry Steel CC before leaving the employ of the local steelworks and working in his family’s garage in Neath. His duties in the business meant that Stan could rarely take time off to play in county cricket in the late 1930s. After the war, he remained one of the finest spin bowlers in the South Wales and Monmouthshire League and was a potent force with the ball whenever Neath played at St. Helen’s. Johnnie Clay was acutely aware that Trick could be the trump card in Wooller’s pack and after a few quiet words from the pair, Trick made himself available for all four Championship at Swansea, as well as the match against Warwickshire on his home patch at The Gnoll as Neath played host to the West Midlands side. In all, Trick took 28 wickets in the four matches at St. Helens and played a leading hand in victories which maintained Glamorgan’s quest of the county title. In late May Somerset were the first visitors to Swansea with Glamorgan in rude health after victories in three of their opening four matches. On Stan Trick.